Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Feb:149:107785.
doi: 10.1016/j.cct.2024.107785. Epub 2024 Dec 22.

A one-day acceptance and commitment therapy workshop for the prevention of chronic post-surgical pain and long-term opioid use following spine surgery: Protocol for a pilot feasibility randomized controlled trial

Jolin B Yamin  1 , Bethany D Pester  2 , Ramya Kommu  3 , Caroline Allen  4 , Diya Dharmendran  5 , Kylie Steinhilber  6 , Madelyn Crago  7 , Savannah Kazemipour  8 , Angelina Franqueiro  4 , Delia Fentazi  4 , Kristin L Schreiber  6 , Robert R Edwards  6 , Robert N Jamison  6 , Samantha M Meints  6
Affiliations

A one-day acceptance and commitment therapy workshop for the prevention of chronic post-surgical pain and long-term opioid use following spine surgery: Protocol for a pilot feasibility randomized controlled trial

Jolin B Yamin et al. Contemp Clin Trials. 2025 Feb.

Abstract

Background: Back pain is increasingly common, leading to more spine surgeries. While most people experience pain relief and improved function after surgery, many continue to suffer from chronic post-surgical pain (CPSP) with limited functional improvement. CPSP is often treated with opioids, raising concerns about misuse, poor functional outcomes, and broader public health impacts. Therefore, perioperative interventions are needed to enhance outcomes and reduce the risk of opioid misuse after surgery.

Objective: This article outlines a study protocol evaluating the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of a brief, perioperative Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) intervention aimed at improving pain and reducing opioid use after spine surgery.

Design: In this pilot randomized controlled trial, participants scheduled for spine surgery (anticipated N = 100) are assigned to the ACT intervention or a treatment-as-usual group.

Intervention: The ACT intervention is a 5-h, single-session, virtual workshop with a booster call two weeks post-workshop or post-surgery, whichever is later.

Outcome measures: The primary outcome is patient-reported treatment helpfulness immediately after the intervention. Secondary outcomes include patient-reported treatment credibility and expectancy post-intervention, treatment helpfulness at 1 month post-surgery, and pain interference, pain intensity and opioid use at 1, 3, and 6 months post-surgery.

Conclusion: This pilot trial examines a novel, brief ACT intervention aimed at preventing CPSP and reducing opioid dependence. If successful, feasibility and preliminary efficacy results will be utilized to inform a future, full-scale randomized trial of this intervention.

Keywords: ACT; Acceptance and commitment therapy; Chronic pain; Opioid; Spine surgery.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Yong RJ, Mullins PM, and Bhattacharyya N, Prevalence of chronic pain among adults in the United States. Pain, 2022. 163(2): p. e328–e332. - PubMed
    1. Desai MJ, et al. The Back Pain and Movement (B-PAM) registry; a study protocol. BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, 2019. 20: p. 1–9. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Stewart WF, et al. Patterns of health care utilization for low back pain. Journal of pain research, 2015: p. 523–535. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Beschloss A, et al. Marked increase in spinal deformity surgery throughout the United States. Spine, 2021. 46(20): p. 1402–1408. - PubMed
    1. Yoshihara H and Yoneoka D, National trends in the surgical treatment for lumbar degenerative disc disease: United States, 2000 to 2009. The Spine Journal, 2015. 15(2): p. 265–271. - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms

Substances

LinkOut - more resources